Skip to content
Elly Roberts reviews
EMI
- Cat.no: 3541172
- Released: February 2006
- Rating: 6/10
Britain’s infatuation with snoozy-type MOR continues to thrive.This timeits Leeds starling Corinne Bailey Rae’s turn to fall into the Norah Jones,Katie Melua slipstream.
Nice is a word all music journalists should avoid.However, that’s what the general consensus seems to be about CBR’s debutalbum, and it is. Even so, the Yorkshire lass currently tops the albumsafter only 3 weeks in the chart (w/c 20 March).
Propelled by radio -friendly gem Put Your Records On (the only really impressionable song), thiscollection will make every coffee table in the land: maybe that’s the dangerzone .Vocally, she’s in the fragile Nelly Furtado league, (or possibly GillScott and Vivian Green), though the music has more depth and breadth. In themix is a very clever fusion of jazzy, mostly soulful (sometimes R’n’B)ballads that will melt your heart away, even if you’re a bloke.
Song construction, soundscapes, and production are dream-like. The songsthemselves are inoffensive, accessible, and deeply melodic. and. jolly nice.Leaving your mark is a different ball game, and one can’t help fell she’syet to do that, when comparisons with Billie Holliday are quite outrageous.
Missing, is the real killer and indelible song that’s actually interestingand groundbreaking – maybe that’s to come. For now, we’re left with prettypoems put to sophisticated music, which isn’t actually ‘pop’ at its core. Ithink the album’s cover sums it all up. Lazy opener, Just Like A Star plodstoo much to make that ‘first impression’, though her voice, the main featureof the album, holds it together ‘nicely’.
A similar mood ensues onEnchantment – surely by now there should have been more adventure. After thesingle we’re effectively back to the start on Till It Happens To You, and alater Choux Pastry Heart with Trouble Sleeping taking a more ambient pace.Track 9, I’d Like To, Bailey throws caution to the wind a la Joss Stone: youfinally might wanna get up and dance. well almost.
Closing as it started, Seasons Change limps out at a predictable pace.
When the ‘new soul siren’ tag is being flashed about so quickly, it’s tooeasy to lose sight of what soul singing is all about – it comes from thesoul, whereas Rae is currently coming from the head. There’s a hugedifference which Joss Stone is still coming to terms with. Soul music orR’n’B can be challenging: this album isn’t, but perhaps it wasn’t meant tobe.
Right now, Nelly Furtado and the brilliant Macy Gray are off the music radar- it might happen to CBR unless the next album has more to offer.
Weblink:Corinne Bailey Rae.net
The full list of tracks included are :
1. Like A Star
2. Enchantment
3. Put Your Records On
4. Till It Happens To You
5. Trouble Sleeping
6. Call Me When You Get This
7. Choux Pastry Heart
8. Breathless
9. I’d Like To
10. Butterfly
11.Seasons Change
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.